The Rockets had decided they would choose Rick Adelman's successor even before the team and the coach had agreed to part ways.

Adelman could have remained the Rockets' head coach, but was told that the Rockets had decided to hire his successor and put him on Adelman’s coaching staff if he remained, according to two individuals with knowledge of the talks.

Though Adelman and Rockets general manager Daryl Morey came together on several issues, Morey wanted Adelman to mentor a successor that Morey and Rockets owner Leslie Alexander would have chosen and put on Adelman’s staff. Adelman was unwilling to make the changes necessary to his staff, arguing in favor of assistants.

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Adelman, 64, has long touted lead assistant Elston Turner as ready to lead a team, but the Rockets were not willing to designate Turner as Adelman’s successor, leading to Turner’s decision to turn down an offer to interview for the head coaching position.

There were discussions about adding Rio Grande Valley Vipers coach Chris Finch to the Rockets staff, according to both persons familiar with the talks, but it is unclear if Finch would have been designated as the head coach in waiting.

Morey has been unwilling to discuss the disagreements that led to Adelman’s departure.

“We agreed to keep those conversations to ourselves,” Morey said last month. “We feel like we need change. I think the differences in terms of the mutual fit revolve around that.”

Though there have been instances in which assistant coaches have been designated to succeed veteran coaches, in those cases the assistant was part of a staff, rather than placed on the staff by the front office.

It is even more unusual given Adelman’s track record. He moved to eighth in career coaching wins and had the best winning percentage as Rockets coach in franchise history.

His assistants – Turner, Jack Sikma, T.R. Dunn and R.J. Adelman – had been on Adelman’s staff in all four seasons in Houston. Turner was a Sacramento assistant under Adelman for six seasons, Dunn for four seasons.

Sikma, who interviewed for the Rockets head coaching position last week, was an assistant coach in Seattle for four seasons. R.J. Adelman had been an advance scout for the Kings and SuperSonics before joining his father in Houston.

The insistence on putting a successor on Adelman’s staff would not be a part of the current coaching search because the Rockets are not expected to choose a coach late in his career. They could, however, seek to place Finch or another coach with a player development background on a new coach’s staff.

Finch is not expected to be a candidate for the head coaching position with the Rockets apparently seeking a coach with experience as an NBA head or assistant coach.